Comments You Won't Hear at the 12-21-03 WT Study
by blondie 32 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Maverick
Hey BB, do you have a point to make? We welcome alternate points of view. Share some of your wisdom with us. What did Blondie write that was incorrect?
My motto is; "The truth stands tall under scrutiny, only the lie seeks to suppress!
If you have something to offer...then offer!
If you just attack my friends...prepare for a fight! I have no problem going toe to toe with you. Maverick
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blondie
Guten Tag, Odrade und dein Mann,
How can the shepherds train and teach if they can't even work in the same group with women and children? They are hierarchical and elitist, whether they can see it or not. "Fine shepherds," indeed.
An older sister used to jump the elders for this. Why they didn?t even work with their own families. Then there were the ones that would only work with their families. Partly, this happens because a) they schedule shepherding calls on Saturday, add an RV at the beginning and the end and then they can count their time and not interfere with their evenings or limited free weekend time b) they only time they have to work with their families is Saturday am since they don?t go out on Sundays or evenings.
Guten Abend, Maverick,
local leaders are poor shephards because their Masters are weak leaders themselves. If one leads by example, as Jesus said to do, then the failure of the local "men-in-charge" is merely a symptom of the faulty leadership skills of the PO's, CO's and Governing Body!
The sheep go where the shepherd leads. Paul said, imitate me even as I imitate Christ.
Matthew 23:1-3
Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying: 2 "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the seat of Moses. 3 Therefore all the things they tell YOU, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say but do not perform.
Hi, wannaexit,
the society discredits others all the time. Just last week at the circuit assembly the d.o. went on and on about the media and how they lie and can't be trusted and how shows like Dateline are similar to tabloids.
Of course, if they say something good about the WTS, then they suddenly become truthtellers.
Hello Biblebasher,
Are you a faithful JW then? If so, why are you here? Do you think the Almighty God needs you to defend him in a place that the WTS says you should not be? If you think this is an apostate site, then you could be an apostate just by being here.
Do you ever agree with any thing the WT?
When it agrees with the Bible.
What are you going to do with your life when the WT collapses like you keep predicting?
Actually, I have never predicted the collapse of the WT. I actually think it will continue to exist in some form or another, just not with me as part of it.
Could you take critasisam about your comments like you do with the WT?
I already have.
There are many more questions like theses i would like answers to.
Ask away, but I?m not obligated to answer.
Get a life or better still get on with your new found life if its so good.
I have a good life now, one founded on imitating Jesus Christ who minced no words when the Pharisees invalidated God?s word with their traditions and rules. I can hear the Pharisees now telling Jesus to "get a life or better still get on with your new found life if its so good."Well, BibleBasher, I think you have just pushed up the readership of this weeks? review. Thanks Maverick and wannaexit for your support. Hey there, jgnat, Good points, it helps having someone post who has never been stuck inside the WT box.The Korean leader of our team said his strategy was not to do development work like so many of the Christian NGO's in Cambodia. He said he just intended "to preach the gospel so that people understand about Jesus Christ, get saved and go to heaven".
Jesus didn?t ignore the physical needs of people but he realized that feeding their spiritual side was necessary. He was able to combine both and strengthen the people. The sheep belong to Christ and they will listen only to his voice. As to Arius and JWs, w84 9/1 p. 25 Because they do not believe in the Trinity dogma, it has been said of Jehovah?s Witnesses that they practice "a form of Arianism." But the fact that they are not Trinitarians does not make them Arians. In one of the few writings of Arius that has survived, he claims that God is beyond comprehension, even for the Son. In line with this, historian H. M. Gwatkin states in his book The Arian Controversy: "The God of Arius is an unknown God, whose being is hidden in eternal mystery. No creature can reveal him, and he cannot reveal himself." Jehovah?s Witnesses worship neither the "incomprehensible" God of the Trinitarians nor the "unknown God" of Arius. They say, with the apostle Paul: "There is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are."?1 Corinthians 8:6.Because the fourth-century dissident theologian Arius stated the Biblical truth that "the Son is not unbegotten," and Jehovah?s Witnesses accept that truth, The New Encyclopædia Britannica states: "The Christology of Jehovah?s Witnesses, also, is a form of Arianism." First, it must be stated that Jehovah?s Witnesses do not have a particular "Christology," defined as "the theological interpretation of the person and work of Christ." They share the view of the Christian layman who is recorded as having bluntly told the wrangling theologians assembled in Nicaea in 325 C.E.: ?Christ did not teach us dialectics, art, or vain subtleties, but simple-mindedness, which is preserved by faith and good works.? Apparently this man had suffered for his faith in Christ, even as many of Jehovah?s Witnesses have. Like him, they have no faith in theological philosophy. They accept with simplicity what the Bible states about God, Christ and the holy spirit, and they are willing to suffer for their simple faith and prove it by good works.Secondly, Jehovah?s Witnesses cannot be accused of Arianism, inasmuch as they disagree with Arius? views in many respects. For example, Arius denied that the Son could really know the Father. The Bible teaches that the Son ?fully knows? the Father and that the Son is "the one that has explained him." (Matthew 11:27; John 1:14, 18) Arius claimed that the Word became God?s Son "by adoption" because of his virtue or moral integrity. The Bible says that he was created by Jehovah as his "only-begotten son." (John 1:14; 3:16; Hebrews 1:2; Revelation 3:14) Arius taught that Christians could hope to become equal to Christ, whereas the Bible states that God gave him "the name that is above every other name." (Philippians 2:9-11) Far from being modern-day Arians, Jehovah?s Witnesses believe what the Bible says. Thanks, Maverick. I did notice that BB did not actually come up with any examples, experiences, or facts himself. Actually, BibleBasher, I find your username quite interesting. I for one do not bash the Bible, but I will "bash" the WTS in the way of Christ when he bashed the Pharisees for making the word of God invalid.Frank, lovely graphics. I am nothing to the WTS and no threat. But there is one whose opinion should concern them. And in the words of Master Yoda, "BE AFRAID! Be very afraid!" I went out to LOTR tonight. What a panorama of good against evil. Of fighting in the seeming face of assured defeat. Lovely comments all.Blondie -
Mysterious
Some of them are fanatic about scriptures. Mom's real hard core. She always is on a guilt trip if she didn't remember to read one. Was always after me to read one too, I never did it and I'm never going door to door again (today was my last day!)
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blondie
John 5:39-40
"YOU are searching the Scriptures, because YOU think that by means of them YOU will have everlasting life; and these are the very ones that bear witness about me. 40 And yet YOU do not want to come to me that YOU may have life.
The Pharisees looked up the scriptures diligently too but they still rejected Jesus because he did not fit their preconceived ideas of the Christ.
Your mother must search the scriptures without the preconceived ideas of the WTS.
But you know that.
Congratulations on another chain being set loose.
Blondie
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blondie
I want again to thank everyone for their comments. I learn every week something valuable to save.
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Room 215
Blondie, thanks for your continued work and a particularly enlightening thread. What I find quaintly amusing in this article is the picture showing Paul (so identified by the bald head the WTBTS has decreed for him), purportedly ``giving a witness" in the marketplace some provincial city to an attractive female shopper.
Do they seriously believe Paul actually conducted a ministry by strolling around a public venue with a scroll or two in his hand, seeking to accost citizens, attractive females no less, with an unsolicted testimony? How would the male-dominated, misogynistic culture of the times regard a women, their wife, sister or daughter, for assenting to converse amicably with a stranger under such circumstances? How would they regard a woman preacher accosting men in the streets or knocking on doors unaccompanied by their husbands-- or accompanied by males NOT their husbands?
Then too, how widely available were scrolls? Were they not hand-copied? What percentage of the population could read and write? How might Paul authenticate to a skeptic's satisfaction, that the copy he read from was an accurate transcription of the copies kept at the local synagogue?
Also, the article plays the familiar ``mixed message" game: while lauding the WTBTS and its commitment to producing a plethora of ``Bible study" aids, by reference to the experiences with the pastor and the high court official, or judge, it in effect asks the reader whether he/she has enough Bible knowledge to handle such a confrontation in which the introduction of WTBTS publications would not have been accepted.
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jgnat
I learn something every week, too, Blondie. I especially appreciated your link to:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/7831/jehovah.html
Very thorough and clear explanations of WHY the JW insertion of Jehovah in the NT is flawed. I agree that good works are necessary as well. I found it interesting that a missionary who had focused on one side of the equation (good works) , was able to step back and appreciate another man's approach (the message of Christ).
Room 215, I had the same thoughts about that picture. I hated Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman for it's rewriting of history. No woman doctor of that age was integrated in to her community or respected as Dr. Quinn was on that show. Shows like that degrade the great efforts of the real capable women of Dr. Quinn's, who had to live within an oppressive system, and yet made great strides that would look like baby steps to us.
...and here we have modern couples in first century dress, casually strolling through the square, and Paul, ALONE, approaches a LONE WOMAN. With a SCROLL. Unless the woman is of ill-repute, she should be escorted in public. The scroll, a very valuable item, should be locked up in a secure facility. Paul would have known the scriptures by heart, and preached that way. I loathe this kind of rewriting of history.